Life After Death
by FlitterFlutterFly
Summary: While Grandpa Sugoroku lies dying in his hospital bed, Yuugi is offered an opportunity past the game shop. A scholarship to an assassin academy. But will his kind heart allow him to accept that sometimes, death is a necessity? AU. Gen. Oneshot.


**Rating: **T

**Genres: **General; Angst; Tragedy; Family

**Warning(s): **Character Death

**Summary: **While Sugoroku lies dying in his hospital bed, Yuugi is offered an opportunity past the game shop. A scholarship to an assassin academy. But will his kind heart allow him to accept that sometimes, death is a necessity?

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Yugioh.

**Notes: **A couple things. One, a friend of mine told me that this sounds a lot like a movie with Angelina Jolene in it. I've never scene said movie (can't even remember the name) so if it does, it wasn't planned. Two, this is somewhat set in America, so no real Japanese things, but I smudged a couple ideas about teenagers working. You'll see. Three, this is a set up for a longer chapter story. I may or may not actually complete said chapter story, so this can work on it's own.

Without further ado, enjoy!

* * *

"Yuugi, don't worry about me. I'll be fine," Sugoroku Mutou rasped to his grandson from his white-sheeted hospital bed.

"Grandpa." Yuugi closed his tear-filled eyes. "Get better soon." He sniffed and opened his eyes again to stare sorrowfully down at the frail man.

Sugoroku lifted one shaking arm to gently grasp the pale hand of the younger teen. "I'm sorry Yuugi." The arm collapsed back down on the bed, the white-haired man sinking into the pillows.

"Grandpa," Yuugi whimpered softly.

One of the hospital nurses walked up then to stand behind the boy. She lifted a hand to comfort the other, but he flinched and she backed off. "Visiting hours are over," she told him.

Yuugi nodded and turned away from the man who raised him. "Get well soon Grandpa," he whispered.

The nurse escorted the fourteen year old to the hospital entry doors. "Do you need a ride home? Are your parents coming or—"

"No." Yuugi gave her a weak smile. "It's okay. Thank you."

The nurse watched him walk through the sliding glass doors and into the night. She pursed her lips and sighed.

"Is there something wrong Ms. Gwynne?" A doctor asked as he passed by.

The nurse turned to him. "Dr. Aird," she paused, "you know the patient Mr. Mutou?"

The doctor nodded. "Yes, he's Dr. Renji's patient isn't he?"

"Yes." The nurse clenched her hand for a moment. "Why is it that only his grandson visits him? Where are his children?"

The doctor's eyes widened. "You didn't know? Renji told me the other day, Mutou's only family is his grandson. Yuugi, right? Apparently the boy's parents died at a young age and the old man has been raising him."

"What? But who is the boy living with then?" The nurse was shocked.

"Who knows?" The doctor shrugged. "But really Nurse Owen, it's none of your concern. Just focus on healing your patients. He's most likely staying with a friend, or something like that. You know teenagers."

The nurse shook her head wildly. "Sugoroku Mutou only has a year at most to live, possibly only a couple months. He's already been in the hospital two weeks. He'll probably never leave again. The boy's only in eighth grade. What happens when his grandfather dies?"

"I'm sure the boy'll be fine. Now come on, you should get back to work." The doctor subtly rolled his eyes and turned on his heels.

The nurse stood alone in the entryway, mourning for the fate of one teenage boy with a bleak future. Eventually, she tucked away her pity and went to go check on her patient.

Several paces away, the boy walked alone on a dark sidewalk. He clutched his school bag tightly with his right hand, staring straight ahead.

"Grandpa." Yuugi murmured into the shadows. Things had been going great until the man had collapsed one day while eating dinner. 'He's old,' the doctors had said.

Well, he may be old, but he was healthy! Yuugi chocked back tears. Now wasn't the time for that.

"Yuugi-boy, come here for a moment," a somewhat amused voice sounded from the teen's right.

The boy was startled, turning to search wildly across the street with his eyes. There under a streetlight stood a tall man with odd silver hair and a smile.

"Who are you?" Yuugi asked, taking a step back. "And how do you know my name?" He clutched his bag tighter, prepared to use it as a weapon if need arose.

"A friend, a benefactor, or perhaps, your new Headmaster." The man chuckled. "Come with me Yuugi-boy, and we'll talk."

"No. I'm good thanks," Yuugi said. He took several more steps back.

The weirdest thing happened then. In one second, the strange man was under the streetlight, and in the next he wasn't. Yuugi jerked his head around, franticly combing the dark.

"I'm right here Yuugi-boy." The voice was close.

Yuugi spun, kicking into the space behind him. "What—" He cried out as he felt his foot being caught.

"Very good." The man had a tight grip on his leg, blocking the attack. "Where did you learn that? Did your grandfather teach you perhaps?"

Yuugi gave an indistinguishable noise and yanked his foot out of the mania's grasp. "What do you want with me?"

"My my, Yuugi-boy, where are my manners?" The man was smiling again. "My name is Pegasus J. Crawford. I am Headmaster of the AA Academy."

"The AA Academy?" Yuugi asked, tilting his head and calming slightly. Surely a man in a suit wouldn't be lying about such things? Right? He couldn't think straight and shook his head to clear his mind.

"Yes Yuugi-boy. We train assassins," the man, Pegasus, told him.

"Assassins?" Yuugi squeaked.

Pegasus nodded. "Indeed. You are being asked to join us, starting your next school year. On scholarship for free room and food. You can't go wrong."

"But—" Yuugi struggled to form the words. "You're insane!" He finally settled.

Pegasus's smile widened. "Me? Well, that may be true. However, Yuugi-boy, you don't have to decide now. I'll be contacting you."

Before Yuugi could even blink, Pegasus disappeared. "What… you…" He gasped.

Assassins? Did they really exist? Yuugi tried to slow his beating heart. No, they couldn't. Could they?

* * *

Yuugi grabbed a clean plate, or at least, he thought it was clean. Shrugging, he dumped the contents of the pan on it, before making sure to turn off the stove. A fork and napkin, and he was ready to eat.

It had been almost three weeks since that surreal meeting outside the hospital. With no word from Pegasus, Yuugi decided it must have all been a weird dream his stressed brain had concocted. Perhaps five hours of sleep a night was too little.

His sleeping patterns could use some help. Yuugi had to run his grandpa's game shop after school to get enough money to pay for the groceries. Then he would visit his grandpa, then go home and cook dinner. By the time that was all finished, it was usually almost ten at night. Then homework took several hours. After all that, he had to get up for school at around six-thirty.

The game shop. He had to could supplies tomorrow. It was hard work. When he'd helped his grandpa, he'd only had to work at the cash register. Luckily, his grandpa had always had odd hours, so only having the shop open after school and on weekends didn't scare away too many customers. It had taken Yuugi awhile to figure out all that was needed to run the store himself, but he'd done it. Even if it wasn't techniqually legal… But he needed to eat!

Yuugi groaned in exhaustion as he played with his ground beef. Life was great. Sure it was.

"Tired, Yuugi-boy?"

Yuugi jumped up from his seat, fork pointed to his window. In front of it was that man. And the window was closed.

"Pegasus!" Yuugi exclaimed. "I thought—"

"You thought I was a dream Yuugi-boy? Now that's not very nice." Pegasus winked at him. "I assure you I'm quite real. And so is the academy."

Yuugi growled a little. "What do you want from me?"

Pegasus waved his hand in the air and sat down in the chair across form where Yuugi had been previously sitting. It was his grandpa's usual spot.

"Yuugi-boy—" He started.

"Don't call me that." The teen spat out. He was sick and tired of this man's games. Couldn't he just get some sleep for once?

Pegasus laughed low. "Testy aren't we?" Suddenly he fixed the boy with a red stare. "How's your grandfather Yuugi-boy?"

Yuugi wavered, before stiffly sitting in his seat. "Why ask me? I bet you know better than I. If you really are an assassin that is."

That amused Pegasus. "Indeed."

Yuugi looked down at his plate, then back up at the silver haired man. "If you're an assassin, that means you kill people, right?"

"That's correct." Pegasus agreed.

Yuugi bit his bottom lip. "Why do you kill people? I mean, what did they do to you. Do you just kill anyone?"

"We are requested targets by many people." Pegasus told him. "But we only take and accept those who have done malicious acts in the past."

"Malicious?"

"Raping children, killing off employees, terrorizing bystanders, the like."

"But if you kill those that kill, then you are just as bad as them!" Yuugi protested.

"No." Pegasus suddenly sounded very serious. "They kill innocents. We kill murderers. We are not cold-blooded, Yuugi-boy. We are helping the people, even if they will never know it."

Yuugi's hands were shaking. He quickly tried to keep that hidden. "Why me? I don't want to kill anyone."

"You don't have to." Pegasus smiled again.

"But—" Yuugi's eyes widened in surprise. "You just said…"

Pegasus raised a hand. "There are many different types of people we need to make our academy work. Informants, undercover agents, people who clean up afterward and make sure no trace is found. If you don't want to, you will never have to take someone's life, except for maybe in self defense."

Yuugi's shoulders relaxed a little. "Oh." He paused. "You never answered, why me? Why should I be an assassin?"

Pegasus sighed. "Yuugi-boy, your grandfather doesn't have long to live. What will you do when he's gone?"

Yuugi glared. "You're offering out of pity! I can run the game shop. I've been doing fine, I'll survive." He stopped. "And grandpa will get better eventually." The teen added quickly at the end.

"Yuugi-boy, you misunderstand me." Pegasus was shaking his head. "There's no pity involved. You're smart, nearly perfect grades. And you have good reflexes. When you need to, good common sense as well."

"Still—"

"Yuugi, will you grandfather really get better?" Pegasus cut him off.

Yuugi was momentarily stunned by the lack of '-boy'. "I…" He gulped and looked down. "I…"

Pegasus stood up. "Think about it some more. I ask because I think you will be a valuable asset."

When Yuugi looked up, the man was gone just as silently as he'd come.

Killing was bad. Assassins were bad. Weren't they? They had to be. The horror stories said so, after all. Hate only leads to more hate, killing to more killing. Right?

* * *

"I'm sorry. We did all we could." The voice on the other end of the line was sympathetic, but in the usual way. Not the real way.

"I know, thank you." Yuugi managed to get out. Before any more could be said, he hung up the phone.

His grandpa. Grandpa. Heart failure, they said. Grandpa.

Yuugi didn't know how long he sat on the couch, staring at the wall. When he finally snapped out of his daze, there was someone next to him.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Pegasus said softly. And somehow, even though he hadn't known the grandfather, it sounded sincere.

"I graduated from middle school yesterday," Yuugi croaked, his voice dry.

"I know."

"I can't go to a high school and still run the game shop."

"I know."

"Grandpa's gone."

"I know."

"How could you know?" Yuugi turned in his seat, eyes hard. "How could you know what I'm going through? You probably see death everyday!"

Pegasus watched the moon out the window. "I know, Yuugi-boy. My wife died from cancer three months ago. You're not alone."

"Not alone?" Yuugi said in a small voice.

Pegasus looked at him then. "With the exception of the legacies, many of our students have lost their guardians or are escaping from abusive homes. That's what makes them the perfect candidates."

Yuugi closed and opened his eyes, refusing to cry. "I see."

Pegasus gazed at him sadly. "Do you?"

"Killing is wrong. No matter who it is. That's what I believe." Yuugi stated.

"If your grandfather hadn't died of natural causes, if he had been killed, would you want the person who did it to die?" Pegasus questioned.

"No. I would want him to go to jail." Yuugi lifted his chin.

Pegasus raised an eyebrow. "And if he was said to be innocent. Even though you knew he had killed your grandfather, what then?"

Yuugi bit the inside of his cheek. "I guess." He said finally. If his grandpa had been killed. Who would kill his kind grandpa, but a truly evil person?

"You guess what?" Pegasus prodded.

"I guess I would want him dead." Yuugi admitted.

Pegasus nodded. "Would you like to join the Aymal Assassin Academy?"

Yuugi did not answer for a long time. Pegasus waited silently.

To kill or not to kill. How Shakesperian. He wouldn't really be killing… but helping to plan an assassination or clean it up.

If his grandpa had been killed…

He would plan that murderer's death with a vengeance.

What did he have left in his life, but the shop. The shop that sold game boards and cards. The shop that was slowly dying out. He didn't want to be a business owner; he wanted his freedom.

Freedom to kill? No. Freedom to live.

After what felt like hours, but was really only several minutes, the fourteen year old turned to the man. "If you'll have me, I accept."

"I'm glad to have you Yuugi." The Headmaster stood and offered a hand to the new assassin-in-training.

Yuugi took it.

* * *

Like before, I may continue this with Yuugi and other Yugioh characters we all know and love in the Academy. It depends on time and inspiration, but my beta is really pushing for it. Please review and tell me what you think!


End file.
